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Symbol Help Guide

Instrument Types

Prepended Character Instrument Type
"^" Index
"@" Option
"!" Interest Rate
"/" Futures
"$" Foreign Exchange Rates

North American Equities and Indices

Symbol Suffix Exchange
:US or (none) US Equities and Indices Exchanges
:CA TSX and TSXV Exchanges
:CNX CNSX Exchange
:PUR Pure Exchange
:APH Alpha ATS
:OMG Omega ATS
:CHI Chi-X Canada ATS

Options Exchanges

Options symbols are broken down as follows:

Example: 2011 Jan 22 20.00 Call for Microsoft Corp.

Symbol : @MSFT   110122C00020000

@ : All Options begin with the " @ " character.

MSFT (and two spaces) : Six character option root symbol using any prefix/suffix as defined by the OSI definition; left-justified, space-padded. In the case where the option root symbol is three characters, it will be followed by three spaces.

11 : two least significant digits of the Contract Date year

01 : two-digit Contract Date month

22 : two-digit Contract Date day of month

C : "C" for CALL or "P" for PUT

00020 : five-digit whole portion of the strike price; right-justified and padded with zeros on the left; for instance, if the strike price is $26.50, then this field would contain 00026

000 : three-digit fractional portion of the strike price; left-justified and padded with zeros on the right; for instance, if the strike price is $26.50, then this field would contain 500

Possible Exchange suffixes are:

:US or (blank) = Composite US option quote
:CBO = Chicago Board Options Exchange
:AOE = American Options Exchange
:NYO = New York Options Exchange
:PHO = Philadelphia Options Exchange
:BOX = Boston Options Exchange
:IOE = International Options Exchange
:NSO = NASDAQ Options
:C2O = C2(Chicago) Options Exchange
:BTO = Bats Exchange Options Market
:CA = Montreal Options Exchange

Special Classes of Stocks (Class stocks, preferred stocks, warrants, etc.)

Nyse/Amex Exchanges - Equity Classes, etc.

Symbol Suffix Type
(none) Common
.P.W Preferred When Issued
.A or .B or .C Class
.P.A.W Preferred "A" when issued
.P Preferred
.A.W Class "A" when issued
.P.CLASS Preferred Class
.WD When Distributed
.W When Issued
.P.WD Preferred When Distributed
.WS Warrants
.CL Called
.WS.W Warrants When Issued
.A.CL Class A Called
.WS.A Warrants Class A
.CV.CL Convertible Called
.R Rights
.P.CL Preferred Called
.R.W Rights When Issued
.P.A.CL Preferred Class A Called
(none) Debentures and Notes
.U Unit
.EC Emerging Company Marketplace
.PP Partial Paid

TSX/TSXV Exchanges - Equity Classes, etc.

Symbol Suffix
(none) Common
.E Equity Dividend
.A or .B or .C Class
.W When Issued
.PR or .PS or .PF Preferred
.I When Issued (second issue trading)
.PR.CLASS or
.PS.CLASS or
.PF.CLASS		 Preferred Class
.L Legended Shares
.M Booms
.P Capital Pool (Venture)
.H NEX (Junior Venture Market)
.R Subscription Receipts
.N Subscription Receipts (second issue trading)
.O Subscription Receipts (third issue trading)
.S Special US Trading Terms
.T Special US Trading Terms (second issue trading)
.U US Dollar
.V US Dollar (second issue trading)
.Y Redeemable Common
.UN Units
.NT or .NO or .NS Notes
.WT Warrants
.RT Rights
.IR Installment Receipts
.DB Debentures

NASDAQ 5th Character Stocks

When a fifth letter appears at the end of a Nasdaq security, it identifies the issue as one other than a single issue of common stock or capital stock. The first 4 characters are the base symbol for the company. If there is a 5th character it represents one of the following:

Character Definition
A Class A
B Class B
C Issuer qualifications exception - Issuer granted a continuance in NASDAQ® under an exception to the qualification standards for a limited period.
D New
E The NASD® has determined the issuer is delinquent in its required SEC filings.
F Foreign
G First convertible bond
H Second convertible bond, same company
I Third convertible bond, same company
J Voting
K Nonvoting
L Fourth preferred, same company
M Fourth preferred, same company
N Third preferred, same company
O Second preferred, same company
P First preferred issue
Q Bankruptcy - involved in bankruptcy proceedings
R Rights
S Shares of beneficial interest
T With warrants or with rights
U Units
V When-issued and when-distributed
W Warrants
X N/A
Y ADR (American Depositary Receipt)
Z Miscellaneous situations, such as depositary receipts, stubs, additional warrants, and units

Mutual Funds, Money Market Funds

US Mutual funds and Money Market funds have a similar symbol format similar to common stocks. Mutual funds are represented by four characters followed by the letter X. For example, the Fidelity Blue Chip Value fund is represented by FBCVX.

US Money Market funds are represented by three characters followed by two XXs. Fidelity Cash Reserves fund is represented by FDRXX.

Canadian Mutual Funds utilize the common fund family code with a numeric fund code. They also include the suffix :CA (for Canada). For example, the AIM American Growth fund is represented by AIM793:CA.

US Futures

Symbol Suffix Exchange
:NMX Nymex Exchange
:CMX Comex Exchange
(none) Other US Futures Exchanges

Futures always begin with the "/" character and have the form:

/(root)(month code)(year code)

root:

The root symbol is assigned by the exchange. For example, Gold is represented by "GC".

month code:

F = January
G = February
H = March
J = April
K = May
M = June
N = July
Q = August
U = September
V = October
X = November
Z = December

year code:

The year code is a one digit number representing the year. For example, year 2010 is represented by "0" and year 2011 is represented by "1". To illustrate: /GCH0 for Gold March 2010 and /NGZ1 for Natural Gas December 2011

Front Month codes (spot price symbols):

For popular US Futures symbols, a spot price (constant) symbol may exist. Remove the month code and year. For example, /GC for Gold futures and /NG for Natural Gas.

Spot Metal Markets

Always begin with the "/" character and have the form:

/(metalroot)SP(currency)

metalroot:

/GC = Gold
/SI = Silver
/PL = Platinum
/PA = Palladium

currency:

USD = US Dollar
AUD = Australian Dollar
EUR = Euro
GBP = Great Britain Pounds
HKD = Hong Kong Dollar
CHF = Switzerland Francs
ZAR = South Africa Rand

As an example, the Spot Gold in US Dollars is represented by /GCSPUSD.

Forex/Currencies

Foreign exchange rates always begin with the "$" character. For example, the foreign exchange rate symbol for US Dollar vs. Euro is represented by $USDEUR.

International Exchanges

Symbol Suffix Country
AR Merval, Argentina
:AS Amsterdam
AT Athens, Greece
:AU Sydney, Australia
:BE Berlin, Germany
:BR Brussels, Belgium
:BV Bovespa, Brazil
:CL Santiago, Chile
:CO Copenhagen, Denmark
:DB Xetra, Deutsche Boerse
:DU Dusseldorf, Germany
:FF Frankfurt, Germany
:HA Hanover, Germany
:HI Helsinki, Finland
:HK Hong Kong
:HM Hamburg, Germany
:ID Jakarta, Indonesia
:IE Irish Stock Exchange
:IN National Exchange India
:KR Seoul S. Korea
:LS Lisbon, Portugal
:LN London Stock Exchange and FTSE UK Indices
:LU Luxembourg
:MA Madrid, Spain
:MB Mumbai, India
:MI Milan, Italy
:MU Munich, Germany
:MX Mexico
:MY Bursa Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)
:NZ New Zealand
:OK Osaka, Japan
:OS Oslo, Norway
:PA Paris, France
:PH Philippines
:RU Moscow RTS, Russia
:SG Stuttgart, Germany
:SH Shanghai, China
:SI Singapore
:SM Swiss Market
:ST Stockholm, Sweden
:SZ Shenzhen, China
:TH Thailand
:TK Tokyo, Japan
:TW Taiwan
:VN Vienna, Austria
:VX Virt-X (SWX Europe)